PF member of the central committee Elizabeth Phiri has advised party members not worry about the appointments made by the acting leadership at the moment, saying they will all be nullified at the convention.

And Phiri says PF has a long way to go for them to think about another election.

In an interview, Phiri said the appointments were temporal and had nothing to do with rebranding.

“People should not worry about the appointments because very soon, we shall have a convention. As Elizabeth, I might come back as an ordinary person or I may not contest. These appointments are temporal and they have nothing to do with the rebranding. Whoever has been appointed, people will have to be given the mandate by the central committee. So my word to those that are concerned about these appointments is that hold on because the convention is coming. If the appointing authority has appointed the wrong person, they should not worry because the general conference is coming where everybody who has been appointed will be nullified and rendered useless,” Phiri said.

“People that will be given the mandate will be those that will be voted in by the general conference. So this is not something that can affect the party. This also shows how democratic our party is. People can rise up and say no to that. We are really democratic. So with this democracy, we are proceeding to go to the general conference and the general conference will give the mandate to the people. So let us unite on purpose. Whoever is complaining I think is being premature about it because where we are going, the appointments will only last for a few weeks.”

And Phiri said PF had a long way to go, to think of another election.

“We are in the process of preparing for the convention. PF is a democratic party. Those aspiring candidates will demonstrate their democratic right to contest. All what we are doing now are preparations. We have a long way to go for us to think of another election. We refuse to do wrong things at this time. We just want to see that we have the right candidate and people should vote for the right person come 2026. People should have a right choice to see which president will run this country,” she said.

Meanwhile, Phiri said the PF was the most criticised regime, but this did not derail them from constructing roads and building bridges.

“As for me, I want to see President Hakainde Hichilema perform and fulfill each and every promise that was made during the campaigns. That is what we are looking forward to. The wishes of the UPND are my wishes too. We want to see that Zambia develops. We are waiting to hear people say ‘the President promised this and it has happened’. People have carried red pens to mark each and every promise that has been made. Each score that they make will benefit all of us. So we cannot want them to fail us. I always pray that he succeeds. When we were in government criticism was there but we continued providing roads, bridges and the new airport. You can see everything,” said Phiri.

“If criticism was to derail people, I think PF was one of the most criticised. We received punches. There are no punches now but we received punches from the churches and the civil society, but that could not derail us. So nothing can derail the President. Let him just be in the driver’s seat and our prayer is that he succeeds. Our prayer is that we should benefit from the promises he made to the Zambians.”